PRSA Foundation awards CCNY Media & Communication Arts Department a milestone grant to examine the factors affecting the success of under-represented groups in the PR profession
The Public Relations Society of America Foundation has announced two national research project grants to examine the issues and conditions relating to the access and success of under-represented demographic groups of young professionals as they enter the public relations profession. These two important national grants were awarded to the Media & Communication Arts Department at CCNY and to the University of San Francisco.
The CCNY project will be led by Professors Lynn Appelbaum, Program Director of the Advertising / Public Relations Program and Frank Walton, PR Track Director of the BIC MPS Program.
Professor Walton says: "CCNY's Media & Communication Arts Advertising and Public Relations Program has been a national leader in providing career opportunities -- and understanding the broader issues -- for young professionals from Hispanic, African-American, and other under-represented demographic groups in the PR industry. This new research endeavor will help the CCNY BIC faculty be among the vanguard in the integrated communications industry in understanding the dynamics which contribute to the success of all aspiring and committed young PR professionals, regardless of their national, ethic, and cultural backgrounds."
Project co-director, Professor Lynn Appelbaum was co-author with with Professor Rochelle Ford of Howard University, in 2005, of one of the first national studies of under-represented groups in the PR profession. Professor Applebaum is a recipient of the PRSA-New York Dorf Mentoring Award and has served as the PRSA Diversity Chair. Project co-director, Professor Frank Walton has been a member of the Institute for Public Relations Research & Education Measurement Commission since 2008 and has previously served as the Chief Knowledge Officer of the global PR agency, Ruder Finn, Inc.
Chandler Chicco's employee of the year -- a friend of BIC
Marianne Eisenmann
Head of Determinus,
the research division of
Chandler Chicco Companies
In our opinion, it doesn't happen often enough -- that a leading, international agency selects its top researcher as "employee of the year." But that's exactly what Chandler Chicco Companies did for 2013, as Chandler Chicco Companies (CCC), a world-leader in integrated communications in the healthcare and nutrition sectors. selected Marianne Eisenmann as their "employee of the year."
Chandler Chicco says: "Marianne has helped shape nearly every campaign at CCC over the past year – she has pushed us all to think about how to improve programs with a solid foundation of research, how to measure programs from the start, and then how to gauge and showcase success."
Marianne Eisenmann (center)
with BIC students at the
Y&R Mix & Mentor Recpetion
Marianne Eisenmann has been a long-standing supporter and well-wisher of BIC -- and will be making some command performances at BIC classes in Spring semester 2014.
Contemplating the costs of customization, personalization, ad avoidance, and ad blindness
Rob Norman, Global Chief Digital Officer at GroupM and member of the BIC Advisory Board has written a post about the "now and next of digital development as it affects advertising, marketing, and media." Norman presents the ad industry with a dual challenge: 1) age shift: "by 2020 Millennials will represent 50% of the West's population. Half the world's population will be under the age of 30 by the same date," and 2) the "hyper-fragmentation and attention deficit" that increasingly characterizes entertainment, media (and thereby advertising) consumption.
In an era in which the business models of content distribution, and advertising, are threatened, if not shattered, Norman worries about the future of brands and branding (as we know them today): "awareness [broad awareness by a wide public] remains critical to brand health and the creation of demand which, in turn, depends on a strong mass media." Norman poses the question -- What if, soon, there is no "mass media"?
Brands and mass media co-evolved in the second half of the twentieth century. Without that mass media, what's the future of brands?
Check out Rob Norman's post, here. Also, follow Norman on tumblr.
Guinness is good for appreciating a brand
Guinness's "Best Ad of All Time" (The Sunday Times 2002)
Jemima Maunder-Taylor, a brand analyst with Interbrand in London, has written an insightful and entertaining post on the Guinness brand -- its evolution, milestones, and enduring characteristics. So few commercial brands have such a long history as Guinness; the continuity of both the product and brand attributes along with the record of marketing and communications successes provides a compelling view of the potential of well-managed brands.
Refreshing the world's biggest brand
Quietroom provides a brand refresh for Santa. (No less an authority than Fast Company sees this as a "genius spoof.") A little more theoretical than what LogoDesignLove provided last year.
Santa has a long history (not easily "suited" for a blog post). But we cannot ignore the contribution that Coca Cola Company has made to the Santa Brand along with branding for Coco Cola. Here's a history of the Coca Cola contribution from Executional.co.uk.
Happy holiday.
PRSA Foundation awards CCNY Media & Communication ...
Chandler Chicco's employee of the year -- a friend...
Contemplating the costs of customization, personal...